Jordan Research and Training Reactor built by the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute

The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) announced that its Jordan Research and Training Reactor (JRTR), which was permitted to be operated in January this year, is now loaded with nuclear fuel with a trial operation around the corner. It added that the completion ceremony for the JRTR will be able to be held in or before August this year in the presence of officials from the South Korean and Jordanian governments.

The KAERI is planning to assist in the operation of the JRTR until it can be run by Jordanian engineers alone. Then, all the facilities and management rights are handed over to the Jordanian government.

The JRTR is the outcome of South Korea’s first overseas research reactor construction project. The consortium of the KAERI and Daewoo Engineering & Construction won the deal in January 2010. The construction process began in November of the same year.

The research and training reactor is housed in the Jordan University of Science and Technology located in Irbid City, 70 kilometers north from the capital city of Amman. It has a thermal output of 5 MW and is scheduled to be utilized for the purposes including neutron-based basic science research and the production of radioactive isotopes for industrial and medical applications.

The KAERI is currently looking to export similar reactors to the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan, etc.